Open Mic+ brings Moto X ‘always listening’ mode to Jelly Bean users

Lately we've been seeing and hearing a lot about these 'always listening' features that Google Glass and the Moto X offer. Being able to have the microphone always on to hear commands like "OK, Google Glass" or Hey Moto to get search results, use Google Now, and more. Well, a developer is attempting to bring this to all Jelly Bean devices.

We learned about this new app earlier today called Open Mic+ and wanted to share the progress with everyone. It's certainly in development and what we'd consider a beta product, but hopefully it will improve into a full out alternative app for many. Being able to select any hot phrase you'd like your phone to respond to, and instantly search through Google Now without touching a thing.

I'll say it again, this app is in beta and needs some work. The screen-off always listening mode struggles, and usually only works a few times before you'll have to toggle the app again. Hopefully some of these bugs get ironed out. Another aspect here is the Moto X has two additional low-power processing cores to handle the 'always listening' aspects, otherwise your battery won't last long. We didn't test that here, but we're willing to bet this app will drain that battery of yours quite quick. That aside, check it out below.

As you can see from the video above the app is extremely simple and straightforward. Set up the hot phrase you'd like, turn on the Open Mic listening mode and go about your day. We did however have issues with speed, and it would occasionally become unresponsive until we restarted the app. But as we state in the video above, the potential here is promising.

The hand wave worked quite well also, and a simple wave turns on the mic and enables you to quickly ask for directions, search for nearby stores, or anything else you'd like with Google Now. We're expecting more and more phones to arrive with this type of feature, and it's a dedicated feature of the new Snapdragon 800 as well, so expect to see plenty of this moving forward. Give it a try from the link below.

This, with the knowledge that the NSA can remotely trigger Android phones’ microphones and bug our conversations? No, thanks.

Michael Perez

They no longer need to trigger anything since it’s now a feature. Ironic isn’t it?

Jarrod

This is why Cyanogenmod is the way to go. Cyanogenmod accounts helps with all this privacy.

http://www.mikestenger.com/ Mike Stenger

annahuffington9

One has to keep in mind that Moto X uses X8 chip to do this. Always on listening feature, always show notifications feature are NOT just softwares. They make use of low power cpus and optimizations they might have done in low layers. So no 3rd party developer can make these features.

http://www.androidcommunity.com Cory Gunther

I mention that above.. Yes, this won’t be nearly as accurate, or as efficient as Motorola’s system. Or any using the Snapdragon 800 for that matter.

PmC

I think I’ll run this for half an hour, and see what sort of hit my battery takes… My guess? Without those specialized parts, a ton.

Hordiyevych

Whenever I tap on the link to this app it just gives me an item not found error. Any tips or anyone could give me the apk file?